ATLANTA — Locals who rent their property out to visitors through companies like Airbnb said demand is supposed to peak this week as the FIFA World Cup moves into the knockout round in Atlanta.
“Today, my guest is coming from Hungary for the game,” said Nadia Giordani.
She owns one of more than 15,000 short-term rental properties in Atlanta, according to AirDNA.
Since the World Cup kicked off here, Giordani told Channel 2’s Courtney Francisco that her spot has been booked solid.
[DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks]
“I had one guest cancel because their team didn’t make it, but I got another booking right away,” said Giordani.
She said she raised her prices about 80% in anticipation of a surge of visitors this month. She offered a 20% discount to those who booked with a strict cancellation policy. Now, it costs most people about $200 to $225 a night depending on the day of the week.
“When it was first announced, a lot of people mentioned the fact that they were going to raise their prices to thousands of dollars a night,” said Giordani. “I wanted to keep it affordable.”
She said her sales are up 50% compared to last June.
“It absolutely met my expectations and exceeded it,” said Giordani.
Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau told Channel 2 Action News Monday that hotel bookings have not met expectations. FIFA once promised an impact equal to eight Super Bowls.
“On the flip side, how much are we spending on putting on the event?” said Declan Abernathy.
TRENDING STORIES:
- Video shows woman being run over in driveway, body dragged back to home
- Mother found dead at Buckhead home, son in custody; family may be linked to NFL player
- Woman says popular oil change business left engine with extensive damage
Abernathy is a lecturer at Georgia Tech’s School of History and Sociology. He is one of those researching the financial gain of a mega event like the one occurring right now.
“There’s many other complicating factors including people who don’t come here because they don’t want to deal with the World Cup,” said Declan. “How are people spending money versus how much money they might have spent outside the mega event.”
Giordani said, so far, the games have had a positive economic impact on her circle.
“It has had a great economic impact for my family and for my cleaners and the people that I employee,” said Giordani.
Since the games started June 11, the Metro Atlanta Chamber said nearly 400,000 people have attended Fan Fest, more than 350,000 people have experienced the stadium and MARTA has transported 1.7 million riders.
[SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]